Enigma of Sin

Just as Kayn was mentally and physically preparing himself for his upcoming fight, mana filled with bloodlust swept over him. Within a few seconds the general of the Carnet Empire was standing in front of Kayn with a bo staff in hand angrily staring at Kayn.

"What do you think you're doing?" The general asked rather than going straight into fighting Kayn.

"What's it look like? I'm clearly not on your side. Did your mind dull while constantly besieging, thinking that there wouldn't be any enemies outside of that dome still?" Kayn asked with contempt.

"You must be young, thinking that insulting me would put me off and cause me to act recklessly. I will kill you, that is inevitable, but I would like to get some information from you first." The general's attitude changed from anger to sterner and more confident, like what he was saying was going to happen no matter what.

"And what makes you think I'll just willingly talk to you and give you information without having you capture and torture me?"

"You don't strike me as the type to willingly be captured, plus we're talking already are we not? Also, I'll admit that you are powerful, and even I am questioning my own aura sensing spell for the first time in my life. A 2nd stage mage wouldn't be able to do all of this." The general spoke as he pointed his staff around them at the carnage Kayn had wrought.

"That being said, I still don't believe you can fight me. You no longer have the advantage of a sneak attack. Are you confident in killing me in a direct confrontation?"

"I guess we'll see." Kayn spoke as he withdrew the Akikani from his Void Loop and coated it in sword aura of the wind element. He held it with a single hand as he was planning on simultaneously attacking with sword attacks while launching spells out of his other.

A moment of silence later, both fighters launched at each other and began to rain down attacks on one another. The general was faster than Kayn, further displaying the disparity of core stage and the evolutions that came with it.

Fortunately for Kayn, he had multiple ways to make up for his short comings. He had practiced using his wings in combat while infusing them with the elements, and in this case, he was using the earth element to strengthen his bones to the maximum that he could.

Whenever he wasn't able to block or parry a strike from the general's staff with his sword, one of his wings was always at the ready to deflect the missed attack. It required a lot of concentration in order to control so many limbs while also keeping up with the rate of combat, but all of the improvements he went through due to the Analyze skill significantly helped him in this aspect.

The general was a rare tri-elemental magic warrior of the fire, earth, and dark elements who specialized in medium range melee combat with a few specialty long-range spells. All of his attacks were mixed with one element or the other and Kayn had to adjust and respond to each element in kind.

As the fight went on, Kayn was receiving more and more injuries to his wings. Most of the webbing between the bones had been shredded and the impacts with the staff that he couldn't deflect and had to block had fractured a few of the bones even with earth fusion affecting his bones.

However, it wasn't without gains. Kayn had landed a few sneaky spell casts on the general at the beginning of the fight, but none were powerful enough to cause any significant damage. The general's bo staff was a different story as Kayn's sword aura was able to slice away and cut directly into the tier 5 weapon.

The general took note of that and adjusted how he defended Kayn's attacks, helping him to alleviate the pressure of his weapon possibly breaking. He was smiling as he continued his relentless attacks as he was getting closer to winning with each and every exchange. His smile turned to a frown though as he watched the wings which he worked hard to disable start mending with new flesh in front of his very eyes.

At this point, Kayn kicked it up a notch by adding more elements to his fighting style. The general was caught off guard being attacked by something other than the wind and fire elements Kayn was using originally.

Kayn wanted to use the void element by fusion creating extinction elements, but it cost too much mana to use repeatedly and he was going to need as much mana as he could get. He had no clue how long he was going to have to fight as reinforcements stormed in from the sounds of his fight.

He planned to use one of the special abilities attached to his vambracers when he was in trouble and needed to escape. The teleport skill would be able to get him away far enough that he could conceal himself in order to recuperate, but he wanted to try and defend the dome for as long as possible.

If the defenders inside could gather their strength, and he proved himself an ally, they may just let him inside after a time. He could always show his face, but he didn't know if there was anyone alive inside that actually knew who he was.

He hoped that at least Maria and Director Vix were alive, but he wouldn't be able to discover if they were alive, dead, or slaves unless he was able to get in. If he took the scarceness of the city and the battle scars marring the academy into account, he didn't have a good feeling that he would find them alive and well.

Focusing back on the fight and his Mana Sense that was extended around the area, Kayn noticed a surplus of soldiers heading his way from the middle ring. Deciding that he needed to try and catch the general off guard again, he went against his instinct to retain as much mana as possible and used the void.

Fusing wind and void into his sword aura, the Extinction Wind slashed straight through the already damaged bo staff, opening a gap in the general's defenses which Kayn quickly made the best of. Kayn pierced straight through the general's lower chest with the Extinction Wind sword aura still active.

Kayn took a gamble with where he aimed as he knew that piercing the general's heart probably wouldn't kill him, so he aimed at the most probable location for a sure win, the mana core.

The general's actions faltered after he was stabbed as his eyes opened wide at the realization that he no longer had access to his mana aside from the small amount still active inside him already. Rage exploded from his eyes as he started attacking Kayn with reckless abandon with the now sharp end of his broken staff.

Kayn stepped back and swiftly moved to defend the increasingly powerful attacks. All he needed to do was last for a few minutes and hopefully the general's strength would falter, much like a star shining the brightest right before it dies.

The staff made it through his defenses a few times, causing him to accumulate more injuries, but nothing that he wouldn't be able to heal within an hour of constant light and water infusions. Each attack the general made was stronger than the last with the speed between each attack decreasing.

Kayn was now defending from several hundred attacks per minute and if a regular person was watching, they would see nothing but a blur between the two mages. Kayn himself was becoming increasingly sweaty, tired, and sore as more and more hits were getting through his defenses, forcing him to use more mana to create a barrier just over his outfit.

Even with his core constantly leaking out mana and being partially destroyed, the general was determined to kill Kayn before he exhausted his mana and could only rely on pure brute force. Unlike Kayn who was constantly healing himself, the general was accumulating more and more injuries from Kayn's counterattacks.

A trail of blood formed on the ground following along the two mage's fight. Just as Kayn was about to be backed into a corner against a building, the general lashed out with an attack that Kayn couldn't keep up with, but dodged back reflexively.

After dodging, he prepared himself to counter the next attack only to realize the general was no longer moving. His broken bo staff was aimed directly at Kayn's head and less than 5 centimeters (2") away from him.

The general was staring at Kayn with blank, dead eyes. He had probably been attacking Kayn on instinct for the last few minutes, but finally succumbed to his injuries and blood loss just as he was about to succeed.

Kayn sighed in relief as he sat down on the spot to begin circulating the Void Star technique. He didn't have much time left before the reinforcements arrived, so he needed to get as much mana back as possible.

The number of troops heading towards him was even larger than the last time, but fortunately he couldn't sense anything higher than 4th stage within the group this time. It seemed that they weren't yet aware that the leaders of the attacking group had died and were only responding to the sounds of battle.

Spells hitting the barrier sounded quite different to actual combat, so they knew something was happening. If one or a few of the defenders had exited the dome in order to try and buy some time, the attacking armies were determined to wear them out with the cannon fodder before they sent in more of their higher ranked experts.

They were also under the assumption that the current attacking commanders would come to the same conclusion and would be sitting back giving orders to the troops.

Little did the leaders of the armies know that their forces had been slaughtered as well as their leaders, and they would only be sending the rest of their forces into a battle of attrition that would cost them hundreds of thousands of their lower ranked soldiers.